Music

Years & Years

Years & Years
Photo: © Universal Music

There’s nothing greater than discovering a new band that makes you fall in love with music all over again, and when I first heard Years & Years that’s exactly what happened. Their hit King with its infectious groove, makes you want to hit the dance floor instantly.

Originally consisting of five members, British pop rock and electronica band Years & Years are a trio based in London.

The band consists of frontman and keyboard player Olly Alexander (b. 15 July 1990), bass guitarist and Australian native Mikey Goldsworthy (b. 1 April 1989), and bespectacled synth player Emre Türkmen (b. 3 June 1988). Years & Years have been influenced by bands such as Diplo, Radiohead, Little Dragon, Disney Soundtracks and even 90’s R&B.

The band was formed in 2010, after Goldsworthy moved to London to work as a waiter, he met Türkmen online. Turkmen was born in the Netherlands and raised in Turkey and England. Shortly afterwards, Alexander joined the band as lead vocalist after Goldsworthy heard him singing at a friend’s house while taking a shower! The song that Alexander was singing was reportedly Killing Me Softly. But before they could even take off, the band that consisted of five members including founding member Noel Leeman and Olivier Subria, split, with Leeman and Subria leaving the band in 2013. But the duo were around when the band released their first EP I Wish I Knew in July 2012 on the Good Bait label. Goldsworthy’s impulse was to be a close replica or be inspired by the music of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.

Besides his career as a singer now, Olly is also an English actor and scriptwriter. He took part in plays and it is also reported that he wrote his first song on his father’s Casio keyboard aged 10. His parents separated when he was 13 and he was brought up by his mother. He nursed the desire to be a singer or a musician, but went to become an actor. Meeting Mikey changed his life around and the rest as they say is history.

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Verus Ferreira is a music journalist for over three decades. He is the author of The Great Music Quiz Book and The Great Rock Music Quiz Book and the founder of Musicunplugged.in

Verus Ferreira

Verus Ferreira is a music journalist for over three decades. He is the author of The Great Music Quiz Book and The Great Rock Music Quiz Book and the founder of Musicunplugged.in